The advantage of a guided tour is that it allows you to see all the highlights, and feeds you the history as you go. However the disadvantage is that there's no time to jot anything down. Consequently this post consists mainly of photos I snapped along the way.
Our tour started near the old Charleston City Market, and as we walked through on our way to meet our horse and carriage I couldn't resist photographing these bright wire bowls from Africa. I have one of my own at home, and the workmanship of the women who weave the plastic coated telephone wire into the bowls is amazing.
Here is just a sampling of the gracious historic homes we passed by on our tour.
These pretty houses are part of what's known as Rainbow Row, for obvious reasons.
At the end of the ride we tipped the guide, but when we asked the horse if he'd like a tip too, he said 'Nay!'
A short drive out of town took us to the beautiful plantation of Magnolia Gardens.
It was quite a wild garden, with nature only just held I check, but the driveway reminded us so much of the movie Forrest Gump, and live oaks were everywhere, Spanish moss dripping from their branches.
Here we saw magnolias blooming, of course, as well as azaleas and camellias.
I added another alligator warning sign to my growing collection.
And gasped at the stunning reflections on the still waters.
This Plantation has been in the grounds of the Drayton family for fifteen generations, and the Rev'd
John Drayton developed the gardens in the 1840s.
The house is interesting, though only a small part of it is original, having succumbed to fire during the Civil War.
African slaves worked on what was originally a rice plantation along the Ashley River, and the slave huts where they lived have been preserved.
By the late afternoon it was time for us to move on to our next stop, Savannah, but not before taking a look around this quaint little roadside store, the Carolina Cider Company.
Yes, we did buy a snack for the onward journey!
